Iraq Hopes of fresh talks to avert a US military showdown in the Iraqi rebel hub of Fallujah rose with the release of a key negotiator as Britain mulled a redeployment of its troops. Britain Britain was due to announce it had received a US request to redeploy some of its troops in Iraq into restive, US-held areas -- a move critics warned could be seen as a pre-election ploy to assist President George W. Bush. US All eyes were on Florida, where residents were eligible to begin casting ballots under an early voting law passed in the wake of the 2000 US presidential election fiasco. Mideast Israel committed gross violations of international and humanitarian law during its massive offensive in northern Gaza, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said. Belarus A scheme pushed by autocratic Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko to change the constitution so he can retain power has been approved by voters, officials said, but opponents called the referendum a farce. EU Interior ministers from the five largest western European states said they had agreed to set up a common "watch list" of terrorist suspects but remained split over a controversial plan to create holding centres in Africa for asylum seekers. Yugo UN war crimes judges warned they might use subpoenas to force witnesses to appear at the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic after his lawyers said half the defence witnesses called to testify over alleged atrocities in Kosovo had refused to appear. Afghanistan Five people were killed when an explosive device hit a vehicle being used by election staff in southeastern Afghanistan, while electoral officials said Afghan leader Hamid Karzai had a huge lead in the country's first presidential election after more than one million votes had been counted. North Korea North Korea's number two leader began a series of meetings in China amid pessimism about prospects for an early resumption of talks on curbing the Stalinist state's nuclear programme. Poland Senior German and Polish lawmakers met on the border in Poland in a bid to calm simmering new tensions between the two countries over World War II compensation claims. Britain A long-awaited report into homosexuality within the Anglican community called for a US church to apologise for appointing an openly gay bishop and warned that a repeat could split the faith down the middle. South Africa South Africa's Harmony Gold Mining said it would bid for control of Gold Fields, valuing it at 8.1 billion dollars (6.4 billion euros), in a move which would create the world's leading gold mining group. Austria Ursula Plassnik, a 48-year-old career diplomat, was appointed Austria's new foreign minister by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, the Austrian news agency APA reported.